On 12th April here in Trivandrum (Kerala, India) the Gnu/Linux Users Group - Trivandrum, Free Software Foundation of India, Space-Kerala and Zyxware Technologies together organized the First GNU/Linux Install Fest of kerala.
Venue: Dishaa '08
Kanakakunnu Palace,
Trivandrum, Kerala
India.
Date: 12 April 2008, Saturday
Time: 9AM - 6PM
Strength: More than 300
Link : http://www.ilug-tvm.org/content/keralas-first-gnulinux-install-fest-12-april-2008
I also volunteered for this event & came up with OpenSolaris Stall. More than 300 GNU/linux users came to attend the event. The event started with talk on Free software by Dr. V. Sasi Kumar, Board of Director, Free Software Foundation of India. After that lot of events like DEbug, Technopreneur, Twister, Magic Show, Gaming etc were organised. I gave few OpenSolaris T-shirts to the organising committee to be given as prize in the above mentioned events. Install fest was simultaneously going on from 9 AM - 6 PM. Lot of users were unaware of OpenSolaris or had little idea about it. People were looking at my Solaris Desktop with curiosity and asked is this MacOSX ? I told its just a theme and you can customize your solaris to look like whatever you want to. Played songs & videos on mplayer and told them about Solaris Express Developer Edition, Belenix & Nexenta. Once it started, there was huge rush towards my stall. Most of the students were 2nd year B.Tech students. I told them regarding OpenSolaris & Netbeans. They also had lot of queries & myths regarding Solaris & Netbeans that I'm happy I could clear (most of them). Even in the organising group itself people were having myths regarding openSolaris. I showed all of them that they can do everything that can be done on any other OS + lot more things.
The highlight of the day for me was when a 9th Std. kid came to me & asked "Can I have a DVD of OpenSolaris ? I want to try it out". That was so amazing, my mouth was astonishingly wide open (not only me everyone around the stall). I asked the kid "Do you have any experience installing solaris ? ". He said "No, but I want to try". I was so impressed by his wit, so gave an OpenSolaris Startup Kit to him and explained solaris XDEV, Belenix & Nexenta LIVE-CDs. All of my OpenSolaris Startup Kit DVDs were finished by 2 PM and still users were coming and asking for DVDs. I told them that right now I'm finished but you all can order/download the DVDs from Sun website for FREE. Overall very nice experience interacting with users from different backgrounds.
Cheif Guest - Dr. V. Sasi Kumar, Board of Director, Free Software Foundation of India
Can you spot the 9th standard boy - really enthusiastic about openSolaris
Hi Ajay,
First let me congratulate on your stupendous success
Well...you are justifying your role as SUN CA !
The only concern from my side is, if you can post some of the Myths and Queries by participants in your presentations..
As always...Spread the SUNshine !
Posted by Sukant on April 22, 2008 at 01:00 PM IST #
Hi Sukant, thanks a lot for your appreciation. Accolades of these kinds motivate me to push my level. I would like to thank you for making me believe in myself. You are always a motivating force behind my efforts. Once again thanks a lot dear friend :)
Posted by Ajay Kumar on April 22, 2008 at 03:02 PM IST #